Overweight in Children Linked to Later Substance Abuse

By John Henry Dreyfuss, MDalert.com staff.

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  • Weight status at ages 7 and 8 years was predictive of age of first substance use episode.
  • For girls, earlier substance use was associated with being overweight as a child, especially for Hispanic girls.
  • Girls who were overweight as children were found to be more likely to begin to use cigarettes, marijuana, or alcohol at an earlier age than their healthy-weight peers.
  • For boys, unhealthy weight status predicted later substance use.

Overweight and obesity in childhood can predict the timing of later substance use among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black and White young females and males. The conclusion was drawn by researchers analyzing data for nearly 7,000 subjects from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The researchers examined the relationship between the weight status of children at age 7 or 8 and the age at which they began using substances. (Figure 1.)

 

Figure 1. Intentional drug abuse or overdose is a form
of self-harm often committed with suicidal undertones.
(Sources: Wikipedia/By Sam Metsfan (Apartment in New York)
[Copyrighted free use or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
.)
“We examined associations between weight status during childhood and timing of first cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in an ethnically diverse sample,” the authors explained in an article published recently in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

 

Girls who were overweight as children were found to be more likely to begin to use cigarettes, marijuana, or alcohol at an earlier age than their healthy-weight peers, according to results of the study conducted at the Indiana University School of Education.

“But the correlation between weight and substance use shows up only when the data are broken down by the subjects' racial or ethnic group and sex,” the authors explained. Previous research that didn't take those categories into account found only a weak relationship between childhood weight and substance use.” (Figure 2.)

The research was conducted by Jennifer C. Duckworth and Kelly A. Doran, doctoral students in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, and Mary Waldron, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology.

 

Figure 2. Legal drugs are not necessarily safer.
A 2010 study found alcohol to be the most dangerous drug overall.
(Sources: Wikipedia/Creative Commons/By Tesseract2.)

“Early drinking and drug use are associated with increased risk of problem substance use,” Ms. Duckworth told Medical News Today. “Identifying predictors of early substance use, including weight status during childhood, can help us develop targeted substance abuse prevention.”

“What was most surprising, at least to us, were the different patterns observed for girls and boys,” Dr. Waldron said in her interview with Medical News Today. “Again, for girls, earlier substance use was associated with being overweight as a child, especially for Hispanic girls. For boys, unhealthy weight status predicted later substance use.” (Figure 3.)

The Analysis

Dr. Waldron and her colleagues gathered from child respondents of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The study population included 1448 Hispanic, 2126 non-Hispanic Black, and 3304 non-Hispanic/White respondents aged ≥10 years as of the last assessment. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to predict age of first substance use based on weight status—obese, overweight, and underweight relative to healthy weight—assessed at ages 7 or 8. The data were treated separately by substance class, sex, and race/ethnicity.

 

Figure 3. Comparison of the perceived harm for various psychoactive drugs
from a poll among medical psychiatrists specialized in addiction treatment.
(Sources: Wikipedia/By w:de:Benutzer:Dosenfant [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

 

The results showed that, compared to healthy-weight females of the same race/ethnicity, overweight Hispanic females were at an increased likelihood of alcohol and marijuana use. Overweight White females were at increased likelihood of cigarette and marijuana use. Obese White males were at decreased likelihood of cigarette and alcohol use compared to healthy-weight males of the same race/ethnicity. Underweight Hispanic and Black males were at decreased likelihood of alcohol and marijuana use. Significant differences in associations by sex and race/ethnicity were observed in tests of interactions, the authors noted.

“Early drinking and drug use are associated with increased risk of problem substance use,” Ms. Duckworth said in her interview with Medical News Today “Identifying predictors of early substance use, including weight status during childhood, can help us develop targeted substance abuse prevention.”

“What was most surprising, at least to us, were the different patterns observed for girls and boys,” Waldron said. “Again, for girls, earlier substance use was associated with being overweight as a child, especially for Hispanic girls. For boys, unhealthy weight status predicted later substance use.”


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